Well, I've finally gotten up enough courage to try something for the challenge. But, I'm having a problem. I've got the Dear John letter but unless you're close up, you can't tell what it is and what it's supposed to be. I would like to keep the open door showing in the mirror but I can't figure out how to get it into the close up image. The close up shows the letter so you know that's what it is and what it signifies but by itself, that image seems a little stark. So, I need some critiquing. Would you all help me out? Susan p.s. On a personal note, this is something that I went through a couple of years ago. It's taken awhile to find that it really *was* a new beginning but now I see that it was. One door may close, but another always opens. For those of you who gave suggestions for the water drops on paper, this is what I wanted it for. I never could get it to look right, so I finally took the teardrops off. I'm still playing with that, but I may have to wait until after the challenge is over. Meanwhile, I need some much valued input!

Version two, full view

In the close up, you could take away the book, and put a small free-standing mirror there that showed the door. Also, since you can't manage teardrops, you might do a search for a tissue or handkerchief. I believe www.baument.com has some crumpled paper that might work if you change the texture. Good image so far! Lin

Perhaps you could move the books around and use the mirror on the wall differently placed to enlarge the letter like those mirrors in old showgrounds.

Looking great. When all else fails write the letter on the mirror with red lipstick lol.

It looks nice. A couple of ideas: You could have a picture frame in the closeup, with the picture of a couple in it, and the open door reflected in the glass in the frame. BTW, a little bit of a doorframe showing might enhance the "open" door effect. Also, to make the "Dear John" part of the letter more readable you could bend the paper. It looks like you have the "tri-fold" creases in the letter from being in the envelope. The top of the letter could bend up at the upper crease, making it easier to see what it says at the top.

Thanks for the suggestions so far everyone! It's really gotten me thinking in different lines. I had thought about the picture idea but discarded it because I wanted this to be, oh I don't know, realistic? Maybe a bad word, but I didn't want to just use some generic photo and I'm not gonna use one of me and him (ok, so there's still a little animosity there! :o) ). I had thought about having a photo with half torn away but that seemed too dramatic. I think I need to lose the chair in the corner and put a plant tho'. The scene seems to be so sterile and needs some life in it. I like the idea of bending the paper up. I think I know how I could do that fairly easily. (Hey, nothing really easy to me yet with this program...) I wish I'd thought of lipstick on the mirror when this was really happening. That would have been a hoot! :o) Ok, back to the drawing board. Keep any suggestions coming. I need inspiration! Susan

Ok, so this program is smarter than the average bear. Can someone tell me how I can get the letter formatted with a bend in it? I've tried a terrain, metaballs (way too slow to render) and simple cubes. All of them work in their own way, but when I apply the jpg as a texture, the text either repeats or orients the wrong way. Right now, I have a really good open book look with text on both pages, but that's not what I want. Arugh!!!

I just did a simple grouping of cubes for that picture. The problem I had using a terrain was that when I tried to change the size to make it look like thin paper, it flattened the bent up portion until you couldn't even tell it was bent. Hep me, hep me!

Go to the materials lab, then click on the button in the upper left on the right side of the screen; where the arrow is pointing. This is the editor that will allow you to rotate, resize and move whatever texture you are using. You can rotate your text (the part that is circled) to face the right direction. You can also make yourself a little crazy trying to get it right. :) Lin

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=232195&Start=1&Sectionid=0&Form.Search=ringbearer&Fo

Do a search in the freestuff for paper, there is a simple piece of paper by kmatrix for Bryce. I used it in my Second Thoughts image.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I had no idea what that one control was lsstrout, until you posted your reply and that other thread appeared with the same info. It's a good thing to know! :o) I have the paper too and may wind up using it. I was trying to keep it with everything being my own creation but I may have to give up and use it anyway. Nothing wrong with that, just that I wanted this to be all mine. Well, back to the drawing board. I appreciate all the help! Susan

Well, I've only been using Bryce for 1 week, so don't know the best ways to do things yet, but I made the following image by:

Placing three 2D Faces at angles to each other to make the shape. Created the texture at 512 x 512 in Photoshop. Grouped the three faces and applied the texture.

Then I selected just the top face and using the Edit Texture window shown in message 10 above I set the Y Scale to 300% and the Y offset to 66. Then I selected the middle face and set the Y scale to 300% and the Y offset to 33. Then selected the lower face and set it's Y scale to 300% and left the offset alone.